Refrigerating apparatus



1 F. SCHWELLER REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed May 51, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 27, 1938. E. 1*. SCHWELLER 2,141,255

' REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filedjlay 31, 1935 s Sheets-Shoot 2 AITORNEYS Dec. 27, 1938.

E. F. SCHWELLER REFRIGERATING' APPARATUS Filed lay 31', 1935 3 Sheets-Shut 3 rro'RNEYs Patented Dec. 27,1938

UNITED STATES" momma maasrus Edmund F. Sohwcllcr, Dayton, Ohio, a'ssignor to General Motors Corporation,

, Ohio. a

corporation of Delaware I I Application May a1, 1935, Serial m. 24.311

merous seams or spaces between the panels which were required to be sealed or closed. In such a cabinet, the outer wall could not be depended upon to seal the insulation.

1| It has recently been proposedtomake the outer portion of the cabinet of a continuous sheet of metal which will not only form a continuous o vide a frameless sheet metal cabinet construction which is easy to assemble and manufacture.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the ac- 35 ,companying drawings wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings: v Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a refrigerator cabinet embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a section along the lines 2-2 of Fig; 1; Fig. 3 is a section along the lines 3-3 of Fig. 1;

and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 1, but showing the cabinet in one of the early stages 45 of assembly.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is shown a refrigerator generally designated by the reference character 20 provided with outer sheet metal walls 22 which are formed 50 by forming a flanged door opening 24 in a fiat sheet of metal, and at the same, time forming the ornamental panels 26 directly beneath the door opening. 1 The lower edge of the sheet'adjacent the panels 221s provided with a flange 28 and the sheet is thenbent on either side of the required considerable door opening 24 to form the sidewalls of the cabinet and then bent near the opposite edges of the sheet as best shown in Fig. 2, and connected by a second sheet which extends across the back of the cabinet to form the rear walls. This second sheet is fastened to the edge portions of the sheet extending around the three walls by lock seams (not shown) which are formed upon a seaming machine in which the outer sheet metal portion extends over aflxture, and the lock seams are then hermetically sealed by applying asphalt or solder to the seam or by welding the seam. This rear sheet 30 stops short of the bottom of the cabinet as shown at 32 so as to provide anopening 33 in the rear portion of the bottom of the cabinet.

Heretofore, before completing the outer walls, it has been necessary to insert a partition wall which would separate the machinery compartment 24 from the food compartment 36 before the closing of the outer walls by the rear sheet on the lock seeming machine." In the support of this partition wall it was desired to avoid any spot welds upon the exposed surfaces of the front 'and sides of the cabinet. This made it necessary to remove the outer walls from the fixture within which they were held for the forming of the side walls in order to place the partition wall in place. After the partition wall was put in place, it was then necessary to again place the fixture within the outer wall structure 22 and take the assembly to the lock seaming machine which would look seam the rear wall to the side walls. The presence of the partition wall made the lock seaming operation somewhat difllcult and also required the extra handling incident to removing the fixture, inserting the partition wall, replacing the flxture and returning the assembly to the machine where the forming and lock seaming was to be done. Therefore, in my cabinet I 40 have completed the outer walls first.

The presence of the flanged door opening 24 and the presence of the flange 28 at the bottom of the cabinet makes the problem of the insertion of the partition wall slightly complicated. I, however, have solved this in a simple manner by providing a partition wall 38 which is welded to a U-shaped piece 40 having a flange 42 at its upper edge which is spot welded to the edges of the partition wall 38. The edges of the partition wall 38 are beveled or chamfered as shown at 44 for a reason'to be hereinafter ex-. plained. The member 40 extends downwardly from the edges of'the partition wall on three sides and is provided with a doubled or bentover flange 46 at its lower edge. In order to 111-: sert this assembly into the cabinet, I have cut away at an angle the rear edge portions of the member as shown at 48 so that this assembly may be placed into the wall structure at the top in an angular position as shown in full lines in the flgure and moved directly downwardly in that angular position until it reaches the. lower portion of the assembly after which it is placed in the position shown in dotted lines indicated by the reference character 50 and tilted into position in the bottom of the cabinet with the flange 46 resting upon the flange 28 as shown in Fig. 1.' The cut away portion 48 permits the swinging of the assembly into place with the against the top inner edges of the outer walls 22 is put in place. This, top partition wall, likewise, has its edges beveled or chamfered in a manner somewhat similar to the partition wall 38- excepting that the partition wall 52 and its flanged portions are in one piece.

by a rubber or metal grommet 66. This upper transverse partition is welded in place by spot welds and if desired the flange 46 of the lower transverse partition assembly may be spot welded to the flange 28 at this time. The rear portion of the lower transverse partition is provided with a flange 49 at the rear edge which is spot welded .to the lower edge of the rear sheet 30 at this time. Otherwise, the tight flt within the outer walls may be depended upon to hold either or both of these partitions in place.

This assembly is then passed through cleaning baths and the central opening in the top partition wall 62 permits the air which might be trapped within the upper portion of the assembly to escape freely. Likewise, there has also been holes 58 provided for permitting access of the cleaning fluid to and drainage from the space behind the panels 26. After the cleaning of this assembly, suitable outer and inner finish coatings are placed thereon as desired. Paint, lacquer, enamel, varnish or porcelain may be applied to the outer walls of the cabinet in order to provide a suitable finish. After the proper coatings have been applied, an asphalt seal 60 is provided as best shown in Fig. 3 by pouring hot asphalt into the V-shaped well extending around the edges of the upper and lower partitions 62 and 38. This well is formed between the beveled or chamfered portion ofthe partitions and the adjacent portion of the outer walls. By providing such a well, a sufllcient volume of asphalt is received into the'well to provide enough heat so that the asphalt will flow freely into the crevices and cracks before the asphalt is-chilled so as to provide a certain hermetic seal which will prevent any outside air from gaining access to the insulation space. The grommet 66 is also inserted in place and sealed with asphalt at this time.

In the bottom of the cabinet on top of the flange 46, there is placed a U'-shaped angle iron member." which is bolted to the flange by bolts 64 which extend not only through the angle iron The top par-, tition wall 52 is provided with a central opening which at a later stage of the assembly is closed is simple and the forming thereof is relatively inexpensive.

member." and the flange 46,'but also through the flange 28 and through the flange of the legs 66 which perform the dual purpose of strengthening the corners at the loweredge of the cabinet as well as supporting the cabinet. It is 5 not necessary for the U-shaped angle iron member 62 to extend entirely around the bottom of the cabinet since the flange 28, the flange 46 and the legs 66 are sufllcient to properly support the cabinet except at the rear portion thereof, which is not as strong on account of the opening 33. r

The cabinet door 68 is provided with a gasket seal I0 which when the door is in the closed position flts tightly against the outer face of the cabinet immediately surrounding the door opening so as to complete the sealing of the outer wall of the cabinet.

Within the cabinet, there is provided a door jamb frame 12 which may be a preformed wood frame, or which may be four separate pieces of wood-inserted individually around the sides of the door opening held between the flange 24 of the door opening and the adjacent side walls on the sides of the door opening and the partition walls atthe top and bottom of the door opening. These four pieces may be further held by nails extending through the flange 24 of the door opening into the wood pieces. Insulating slabs 14 are then placed in position in the walls of the cabinet and thereafter the inner liner assembly including theinner liner I6 and the door molding 18 are placed in position within the cabinet. The door molding which is fastened to the inner liner is also fastened to the door jamb frame so as to provide a support for the inner liner independently of the slabs of insulation. In the flnal step, an ornamental top cover 88 is placed over the top of the cabinet and provided with flanges 82 which come over the joint between the partition wall 52 and the upper edge of the cabinet so as to conceal any spot welding marks. Inasmuch as the lower partition wall 38 is only fastened to the outer walls at the bottom flange 28 and immediately above the opening 33 at. the rear of the cabinet as shown by the reference character 41, none of the welded portions of the cabinet is exposed, since the back of the cabinet is ordinarily placed against a wall which conceals the back of the cabinet.

Thus, by my improved construction a smooth outer finish surface of a cabinet extending around three sides of the cabinet and into the fourth side is formed by my improved construction without any hand finishing being required and without any exposed joints. A hermetically outer sealed wall structure is provided which protects the insulation from the infiltration of external air and moisture. The assembly of the cabinet While the form of embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes a premetal walls being provided with an inturned 70 flange at one edge thereof, a partition wall spaced from said inturned flange extending between the vertical sheet metal walls, said partition wall having means extending to and resting upon said inturned flange for supporting said partition 15 wall, said extending means being located within confines outlined by radii extending from one edge of the partition wall having a length equal to the distance from that edge to the directly opposite edge of said partition wall.

2. A cabinet including vertical outer sheet metal walls extending around a space tobe enclosed, said outer sheet metal walls having plane wall portions, one of said plane wall portions being open adjacent one of its extremities, a partition wall within the confines of said outer sheet metal walls located between said open portion and the more distant extremity of said walls, said partition wall being fastened to edge portions bordering said open portion of said one plane wall portion and said partition wall being provided with supporting means extending to and being fastened tothe adjacent extremities of the said other vertical outer sheet metal walls, said supporting means being located within confines outlined by radii extending from one edge of the partition wall and having a length equal to the distance from that edge to the directly opposite edge of said partition wall.

3. A cabinet including vertical outer sheet metal walls extending around a space to be enclosed, said outer sheet metal walls having plane wall portions, one of said plane wall portions being open adjacent one of its extremities, a.

partition wall within the confines of said outer sheet metal walls located between said open portion and the more distant extremity of said walls, said partition wall being provided with supporting means extending to and being fastened to the adjacent extremities of said vertical outer sheet metal walls, said partition wall having edge portions formed to provide a continuous well in cooperation with the adjacent portion of the outer sheet metal walls, said'well extending around the edge of the partition wall, and a sealing compound within the continuous well for providing an air tight seal between the edges of said partition wall and the adjacent portions of the outer sheet metal walls.

4. A cabinet including vertical outer sheet metal walls extending around a space to be enclosed, said sheet metal walls being provided with a door opening therein "having its center point displaced in a vertical direction from the midpoint between the upper and lower extremities of the outer walls, transverse sheet metal partition walls within said outer sheet metal walls spaced substantially an equal distance in opposite directions from the edges of said door opening to provide an'enclosed space between the sheet metal partition walls and a second space within said outer sheet metal walls adjacent one of said partition walls and the first mentioned enclosed space, one of said outer sheet metal walls having an open portionadjacentsaid second space, said partition wall adjacent said second space being'fastened to marginal portions of said open portion of said one outer sheet metal wall and being provided with supporting means separate from said outer sheet metal walls but extending to and being fastened to' one of the extremities of said other outer sheet metal walls, said supporting means being located within confines outlined by radii extending from one edge of the partition wall and having a length equal to the distance from that edge to the directly opposite edge of said partition wall.

5. A refrigerator cabinet comprising an inner liner forming a refrigerating compartment with- 1 in said cabinet and having'an access opening,

and insulation insulating material surrounding said inner liner, and means forming asupporting structure for the liner and insulating material and forming as well the outer finish walls for the cabinet, said means comprising a substantially tubular sheet metal structure having an opening in one side adapted to register with saidcompartment access opening, said tubular sheet metal structure having the wall portions extending from the refrigerating compartment to form a second compartment, a partition wall within the exhaving a length equal to the distance from that edge ,to the directly opposite edge of said partition wall, the fourth side of said partition being fastened directly to said tubular sheet metal I structure. V

6. A refrigerator cabinet comprising an inner liner forming a'refrigerating compartment within said cabinet and having an access opening, insulating material surrounding said inner liner, and means forming a supporting structure for the liner and insulating material and forming as well the outer finish walls for the cabinet, said means comprising a substantially tubular sheet metal structure having an opening in one side adapted 1 to register with said compartment access openlngnsaid tubular sheet metal structure having the wall portions extending from the refrigerating compartment to form a second compartment,

a partition wall within the extending portions of said tubular sheet metal structure dividing said second compartment from the inner liner for the refrigerating compartme nt,.said partition wall having sheet metal supporting means along three of its sides, said sheet metal supporting means extending along the inside of the tubular sheet metal structure and.

being fastened on said three sides only'to the extremities of the extending portion of said tubular sheet metal structure, said sheet metal supporting means being located within confines outlined by radii extending from one edge of the partition wall and having a length equal to the distance from that edge to the directly opposite edge of said partition wall, the fourth side of said partition thereof being fastened directly to said tubular sheet metal structure.

'7. A cabinet including an outer sheet metal tubular wall structure, a partition wall extending transversely across the interior of said tubular wall structure to divide the interior of said tubular wall structure into compartments, said partition wall having supporting means extending to one of the extremities of the tubular wall structure, said supporting means being located within confines outlined by radii extending from one edge of the partition wall and having a length equal to the distance from that edge to the directly opposite edge of said partition wall,

8. A cabinet including an outer sheet metal tubular wall structure, a partition wall extending transversely across the interior of said tubular wall structure to divide the interior of said tubular wall structure into compartments, said partition wall having supporting means extending to one or. the extremities of the tubular wall structure, said supporting means being located within confines outlined by radii extending from one edge of the partition wall and havinga length equal to the distance from that edge to the di v rectly opposite edge of said partition wall. said tubular wall structure having four sides and said partition wall being generally rectangular in shape, said tubular wall structure being provided with an opening in one of its sides for one of g the compartments.

. EDMUND I". 

